S‘JO N U K 
them for feveral yean, agreed in their afFertions, that the 
natives of Nukahiwa were a cruel ints-aftabie people; and, 
without even the exception of the female fex, very much 
addifted to cannibalifm ; that the appearance of content 
and good humour, with which they had fo much de¬ 
ceived us, was not their true charafter; and that nothing 
hut the fear of punifhment, and the hopes of reward, de¬ 
terred them from giving a loofe to their favage pafiions. 
In times of famine, the men butcher their wives and chil¬ 
dren, and their aged parents ; they bake and dew their 
flefti, and devour it with the greateft fatisfaftion. | Even 
the tender-looking female, whole eyes beam nothing but 
beauty, will join, if permitted, in this horrid repaft. Can 
fitch people then be defended ? Can any one join with 
George Forfter, in afferting that the iflanders of the South 
Sea are a good-natured, mild, and uncontaminated, peo¬ 
ple ? Fear alone prevents their murdering and devour¬ 
ing every Stranger who arrives. As a proof of this, I need 
only relate, that feme years ago, an American merchant- 
fhip put into Port Anna Maria; and the captain, who 
was a Quaker, ~fuSFered his people to go on-fhore unarmed ; 
but the natives no fooner perceived their defencelefs con¬ 
dition, than they afiembled in order to attack and drag 
them into the mountains. Roberts, the Englilhman, 
fucceeded, with the greateft difficulty, and with the affift- 
ance of the king, to whom he reprefented the treachery 
of their conduct, and the confequence it would infallibly 
bring upon the whole ifland, in refcuing them out of the 
hands of thefe cannibals. Nor did we ourfelves want a 
proof of their being denied every feeling of juftice and 
goodnefs; for although, during ourftay, no one had ever 
Blown them the leaft ill-will, but, on the contrary, every 
pofiible kindnefs, in order to infpire them with benevo¬ 
lence, if not with gratitude, our conduct feemed to have 
quite a different eft'eft upon them. A report had fpread,. 
that one of our (hips had ftruck, occasioned by our being 
obliged, while in the aft of failing out, to bring-up dole 
to the ftiore. In lei's than two hours, a number of the 
iilanders had afiembled on the beach, clofe to the fliip, all 
armed with clubs, axes, and fpears. What then could 
be their intention, but to plunder and murder us ? 
Cabrit, the Frenchman, too, who came on-board at that 
moment, acquainted us with the hoftile intentions of 
the inhabitants, and of the whole valley’s being in an 
uproar.” 
The houfes of Nukahiwa, if fuch they deferve to be 
called, are built of bamboo, interwoven with fern, and 
the leaves of the cocoa-tree. The infide of the dwelling 
is divided into two parts by a beam ; the front being paved 
with ftones, and the back-part covered with mats, on 
which the family fieep indifcriminately. A door, about 
three feet high, is made in the middle of the dwelling, 
and round it the inhabitants generally fit. Their tools 
coniift of little more than a pointed ftone, with which 
they bore holes, and of axes made of fmall pieces of iron 
which they have received in barter from Europeans, and 
fattened to a handle. As to cultivation, they pay very 
little attention to any thing that gives them trouble. The 
bread-fruit-tree, the cocoa, and the banana, require 
fcarcely any care ; nothing more being neceffary than to 
dig a hole and fix a branch in it, after which the plant is 
in full growth in a month’s time. Fibbing is equally ne- 
glefted, on account of the labour attending it; and the 
natives generally pal's the greateft part of the day in loll¬ 
ing on their mats. In addition to bananas, their food 
conlifts of yams and four pudding, a kind of dough, which 
is not difagreeable, and may be compared in tafte to an 
apple-tart. 
M. Von Langfdorff, who accompanied Capt. Krufen- 
ftern, and afterwards published a feparate account of this 
voyage, has inferted a fpecimen of their mulic, with fome 
remarks by Dr. Tilefius, who failed in the fame voyage as 
naturalift. The fample given is a long, the melody of 
which, however, nuift be imperfeftly expreffed in our 
European notation, becaufe it coniifted much of quarter¬ 
ly U L 
tones. The whole fong is above fifty bars in length; yet 
the extent of 1'cale occupied does not exceed the compafs 
of a fourth, and confequently it mutt be very monotonous. 
Voyage round the World, 1S03-7, by order of the Emperor 
of Rulfi a. 
NU'KE, J. [ultra, I tab] The hinder part of the head. 
Scott. 
NULDIN'GAH, a town of Bengal, capital of the cironr 
of Mahmudfi : lixty-five miles louth-eaft of Moorfiredabad, 
and lixty-five north-eaft of Calcutta. Lat. 23.27. N. Ion. 
89. 16. N. 
NU'LES, a town of Spain, in the province of Valencia; 
twenty-five miles north-north-eaft of Valencia. 
NULHAT'TY, a town of Hindooftan, in Bengal : 
twenty-five miles weft-north-weft of Moorlhedabad. Tat. 
24.. 17. N. Ion. 87. 38. E. 
To NULL, v. a. [rmllus, Lat.] To annul; to annihilate;, 
to deprive of efficacy orexiftence.—Reafon hath the power 
of nulling or governing all other operations of bodies. 
Greta's Cofmolugy. 
Thy fair enchanted cup, and warbling charms, 
No more on me have power; their force is null'd. Milton . 
NULL, adj. Void ; of no force ; ineffectual.—The pope’s 
confirmation of the church-lands to thofe who hold them 
by king Henry’s donation, was null and fraudulent. 
Swift's Mijcellanies. 
With what impatience muft the mufe behold 
The wife, by her procuring hulband fold ? 
For, though the law makes null the adulterous deed 
Of lands to her, the cuckold may fncceed. Dryden. 
NULL, f. Something of no power or no meaning.— 
Marks in ciphered writing, which Hand for nothing, and 
are inferted only to puzzle, are called nulls. Johnfun — If 
part of the people be fomewhat in the eleftion, you can¬ 
not make them nulls, or ciphers, in the privation or tranf- 
lation. Bacon's War with Spain. 
NUL'LA,/! [Indian.] A rivulet; and, although there 
is no water, the place, once a bed, ltill retains the fame 
name. 
NULLACON'DA, a town of Hindooftan, in Golconda: 
forty miles fouth-eaft of Hydrubad. 
NULLIBIE'TY, f. [from nullibi, Lat.] The ftate of 
being no-where. 
NUL'LIBrSM Jc /i A peculiar doftrine relative to the feat 
of the foul. 
After the pains taken by Defcartes to ascertain the feat 
of the foul, it is furpriling to find one of the moll learned 
Engiifn divines of the leventeenth century (Dr. Henry 
More) accufing him as an abettor of the dangerous hereby 
of ntdlibijm. Of this herely Dr. More represents Defcartes. 
as the chief author; and, at the fame time. Speaks of it 
as So completely extravagant, that he.is at a lol’s whether 
to treat it as the fenous opinion ot a philosopher, or as 
the jeft of a buffoon. “ The chief author and leader of the 
nullibifts,” he tells us, “ Seems to have bee;', that pleafant 
nit, Renatus Delcartes, who, by his jocular metaphysical 
meditations, has luxated and distorted the rational facul¬ 
ties of Some otherwise fober and quick-witted perfons.” 
To thoSe who are at all acquainted with the philofophy 
ot Del'cartes, it is unneceffary to obferve, that, to far from, 
being a nullibift, he valued himfelf not a little on having 
fixed the preeffe ubi of the Soul with a degree of accuracy 
unthouglu-of by any of his predecett'ors. As he held, 
however, that the Soul was unextended, and as More hap¬ 
pened to conceive that nothing which was unextended 
could have any reference to place, he feems to have thought 
himfelf entitled to impute to Del'cartes, in direft oppofi- 
tion to his own words, the latter of tiieS'e opinions as well 
as the former. “ The true notion of a Spirit," according 
to More, “ is that of an extended penetrable Substance, 
logically and intellectually divisible, but not pbyfically 
dilcernible into parts.” Whoever has the curiosity to 
look into the works of this once-admired, and in truth 
very 
